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A man and two women walk on a dirt path through a verdant landscape, carrying packs, walking sticks, and other provisions, while in the distance fiery explosions spew flames and plumes of smoke sky-high in this horizontal painting. The people all have pale skin, and the women’s blond hair is bound up. Close to us and at the bottom center of the composition, the man and women walk to our right with their eyes cast down. The man walks at the front of the line, holding a stick with a canteen dangling from a cord over his right shoulder. In other left hand, he carries a basket filled with shiny silver disks. The man has wrinkled skin and a long gray beard. He wears a royal-blue coat lined with white fur over a brown tunic, black tights, and gray shoes. His head is wrapped in a turban with yellow coils beneath a purple and green split crown. The two women walk side-by-side behind the man. The woman farther from us holds two sticks in her left hand. A sack is looped over one stick that rests back across her shoulder. The other staff is vertical and is topped a skein of yarn with a spool. She holds a small saffron-orange chest with a silver handle and lock by her side with her right hand. She wears a long, voluminous, amethyst-purple dress bunched up in front to show a forest-green skirt underneath and three silver keys hanging at her knees. The second woman balances a lapis-blue, bulbous pack on her head with one hand. She wears a red dress with a high, white collar. She lifts the red skirt with her other hand to show a royal-blue skirt underneath. The path is lined with plants and a few rocks to each side. The land rises to steep, rocky outcroppings lined with trees. The shadowy form of a person walks away from us on the path where it winds back to the cliffs. The land dips down to a body of water in the near distance beyond the path. Lemon-yellow and crimson-red flames rise out of a town along the water’s edge in the distance. Streaks of black, rose-pink, and slate-blue smoke billow into the air. Another town burns along the horizon, which comes two-thirds of the way up the composition. The artist signed the work with his initials as if he had painted a rock face next to the path to our left, “AD” in a monogram.

Albrecht Dürer

Lot and His Daughters [reverse], c. 1496/1499

Not on View

Medium

oil on panel

Dimensions

overall: 52.4 x 42.2 cm (20 5/8 x 16 5/8 in.)

framed: 66.2 x 55.5 x 7.6 cm (26 1/16 x 21 7/8 x 3 in.)

Credit Line

Samuel H. Kress Collection

Accession Number

1952.2.16.b

Artists / Makers

Albrecht Dürer (artist) German, 1471 - 1528

Image Use

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Overview

This scene is painted on the reverse side of Dürer's Madonna and Child. The story of Lot and his daughters comes from the nineteenth chapter of the Book of Genesis. In the foreground, Lot and his two children are portrayed fleeing from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, which erupt in blinding explosions of fire in the background. Lot's wife is visible on the path at the upper left in the middle distance. She has been turned into a pillar of salt for disobeying the divine command by looking back on the scene of retribution.

This scene was important for the moral lesson it taught. Like the story of Noah and the flood, that of Lot and the desolation of Sodom and Gomorrah was an allegory demonstrating the power of God to save the righteous.

Since the combination of the story of Lot with the depiction of the Virgin and Child is extremely unusual, the exact relation of the two images remains unclear. However, they could be understood as two examples of the value of a just life and of the pervasive grace of God, especially if the Madonna and Child on the obverse was intended as a private devotional image.

Inscription

center left on rock in monogram: AD

Provenance

Probably a member of the Haller family, Nuremberg.[1] Possibly Paul von Praun [d. 1616] and descendants, Nuremberg, until at least 1778.[2] Charles à Court Repington [d. 1925], Amington Hall, Warwickshire; sold to Mrs. Phyllis Loder, London.[3] (sale, Christie's, London, 29 April 1932, no. 51, as Bellini); (Vaz Dias.)[4] Baron Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza [1875-1947], Villa Favorita, Lugano-Castagnola, by 1934. (Pinakos, Inc. [Rudolf Heinemann] on consignment to M. Knoedler & Co., New York, 1950);[5] purchased 1950 by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, New York;[6] gift 1952 by exchange to NGA.

[1] From the coat-of-arms at the lower left, there would seem to be little doubt that the Gallery's panel was first owned and probably executed for a member of the Haller family of Nuremberg; see Otto Titan von Hefner and Gustav Adelbert Seyler, die Wappen des bayerischen Adels. J. Siebmacher's grosses Wappenbuch. 34 vols. (Neustadt an der Aisch, 1971) 22: 38, pl. 36, and additional information in NGA manuscript for systematic catalogue number 5 on German painting, entry on Madonna and Child by Dürer. The Hallers were one of Nuremberg's largest and most influential patrician families, but our inability to identify the coat-of-arms at the lower right renders it all but impossible to find a candidate. The direction of the Haller arms is reversed so that it may "respect" the arms of what is presumed to be the wife's family at the lower right; see Gustav A. Seyler, "die Orientirung der Wappen", Geschichte der Heraldik. J. Siebmacher's grosses Wappenbuch. vols. A-G (Neustadt an der Aisch, 1970) A: 454-487, and letter of 16 April 1988 from Walter Angst to John Hand in NGA curatorial file. Anzelewsky raised the possibility that the panel was painted for Wilhelm Haller (d. 1534) whose second marriage to Dorothea Landauer took place in 1497; see Fedja Anzelewsky, Albrecht Dürer Das malerische Werk. (Berlin, 1971), 142. On the other hand, Sally E. Mansfield suggested, in a report in the NGA curatorial file, Hieronymus II Haller (d. 1519) who married Catharina Wolf von Wolfstal in 1419.

[2] Christophe Gottlieb von Murr, Beschreibung der vornehmsten Merkwürdigkeiten in des H.R. Reichs freyen Stadt Nürnberg und auf der hohen Schule zu Altdorf (Nuremberg, 1778), 476. "Von einem unberkannten sehr alten Meister. N. 239 Lot eilet mit seinen Töchtern aus Sodom. Man siehet unter andern auch ein Marienbild angebracht. Auf Holz." Listed as belonging to the "Praunisches Museum." The suggestion, which remains unverified, that this refers to the Gallery's painting was first made by Erika Tietze, letter of 4 February 1953 to Fern Rusk Shapley, in curatorial files. In Murr's later catalogue of the collection, however, the painting is given to Joachim Patinir. See Christophe Theophile de Murr, Description du Cabinet de Monsieur Paul de Praun a Nuremberg (Nuremberg, 1797), 31, "Joachim Patenier, 239. Lot et ses deux Filles sortans de Sodome. Les figures sont comme decoupées, sans justes ombres. Sur bois. Albret Durer reçut ce petit Tableau en 1521 à Anvers par le Sécretaire de cette Ville... haut 8 p. larg. 8 p." The Dimensions in pouces, approximately 8x8 inches, do not correspond to those of the Gallery's panel, and a verso is not described, suggesting that a different painting had been assigned the same catalogue number. The Praun collection was dispersed in sales of 1797 and 1802; see Th. Hampe, "Kunstfreunde im alten Nürnberg und ihre Sammlungen," Festschrift des Vereins für Geschichte der Stadt Nürnberg zur Feier seines 25 jähr. Bestehens (Nuremberg, 1903), 82-87. Colin Eisler, Paintings from the Samuel H. Kress Collection: European Schools Excluding Italian (Oxford, 1977), 14, listed Willibald Imhoff the Elder [d.1580] of Nuremberg as a possible owner. Although there are several images of the Madonna or of the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah listed in the Imhoff inverntories, they are not, however, conjoined or described in enough detail to permit identification with the Gallery's picture. By the same token, it is not possible to verify the interesting suggestion in Eisler 1977, 16, n. 46, that the Gallery's panel might be the "Marienbild von Albrecht Dürer" belonging to both the Imhoff and Praun collections. See Joseph Heller, Das Leben und die Werke Albrecht Dürer's (Bamberg, 1827) vol. 2, part 1, 78, no. 1 (Imhoff), 230-231, no. y (Praun). There is also some question as to whether the many works listed as by Dürer in the Imhoff collection were autograph or deliberate falsification; see Moriz Thausing, Dürer, Geschichte seines Lebens und seiner Kunst (Leipzig, 1876), 141-144 (Engl. trans. Albert Dürer, His Life and Works. Fred A. Eaton Ed., 2 vols., London 1882, 1: 184-188).

[3] This and the preceding are unverified, but are first cited in Max J. Friedländer, "Eine Unbekannte Dürer-Madonna." Pantheon 14 (1934): 322, who states that Loder purchased the painting from à Court Repington, repeated in Rudolf Heinemann, Stiftung Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz. I. Teil. Verzeichnis der Gemälde. (Lugano-Castagnola, 1937), 47, no. 127, and accepted by later authors. For Charles à Court Repington see the article by J.E. Edmonds, The Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford and London), Supplement 1922-1930, 717-718. That he dealt in pictures on occasion is stated in Mary Repington, Thanks for the Memory (London, 1938), 223, 278. No information has come to light concerning Phyllis Loder. There is no justification for the assertation in Denys Sutton, "Robert Langton Douglas. Part IV," Apollo CX, no. 209 (July, 1979): 205, that the picture was once owned by Robert Langton Douglas.

[4] Art prices Current, 11, part A, A154, no. 2445; see also the hand-written annotation in the copy of the sales catalogue in the Frick Art Reference Library, New York, as cited by Eisler 1977, 14. A note in the NGA provenance card file suggests that the panel passed from Vaz Dias to the dealer Bottenwieser in Berlin, but it has not been possible to verify this.

[5] M. Knoedler & Co. stockbook.

[6] See The Kress Collection Digital Archive, https://kress.nga.gov/Detail/objects/1344.

Associated Names

Bottenwieser, Paul
Christie, Manson & Woods, Ltd.
Court Repington, Charles à
Haller Family
Heinemann, Rudolf J.
Knoedler & Company, M.
Kress Foundation, Samuel H.
Loder, Phyllis, Mrs.
Praun, Paul von
Thyssen-Bornemisza, Heinrich, Baron
Vaz Dias

Exhibition History

1986: Gothic and Renaissance Art in Nuremberg 1300-1550, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, 1986, no. 109 (shown only in New York).

2003: Albrecht Dürer, Albertina, Vienna, 2003, no. 29, repro.

2007: Dürer e l'Italia, Scuderie del Quirinale, Rome, 2007, no. IV.20, repro.

2007: Durero y Cranach: Arte y Humanismo en la Alemania del Renacimiento, Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza, Madrid, 2007-2008, no. 105, repro.

2012: The Early Dürer, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, 2012, no. 53, repro.

Technical Summary

Lot and His Daughters is quite different from the obverse in both its manner of execution and state of preservation. A ground or preparation layer is either not present or not readily discernible; it is possible that there is a layer of glue or glue with a very small admixture of calcium carbonate that has become transparent. There is no underdrawing visible either to the naked eye or under infrared reflectography. The monogram rendered in brown paint is not visible under infrared reflectography, whereas the dark lines defining the surrounding rock formations are visible, indicating the presence of black pigment in the latter. If the monogram were very recent, it is likely that it would be made visible with infrared reflectography. Numerous small losses are scattered throughout and reflect worm damage, abrasion, impacts to the surface, and flaking due to movement of the unprimed wood. The joins of the panel have opened in the past and have visible inpainting.

Bibliography

1934: Buchner, Ernst. "Die Sieben Schmerzen Mariä: eine Tafel aus der Werkstatt des Jungen Dürer." Münchner Jahrbuch der bildenden Kunst N.F. 11 (1934): 262, 264, 265, 268, 270, figs. 10-11.

1937: Heinemann, Rudolf. Stiftung Sammlung Schloss Rohoncz. 3 vols. Lugano-Castagnola, 1937: 1:47, no. 127, 2:pl. 31.

1938: Tietze, Hans, and Erika Tietze-Conrat. Kritisches Verzeichnis der Werke Albrecht Dürers. 3 vols. Basel and Leipzig, 1938: 2:15-16, no. 130b, repro. 173.

1951: Paintings and Sculpture from the Kress Collection Acquired by the Samuel H. Kress Foundation 1945-1951. Introduction by John Walker, text by William E. Suida. National Gallery of Art, Washington, 1951: 190 under no. 84, 192, repro. 193.

1952: Walker, John. "Your National Gallery of Art After 10 Years." National Geographic Magazine 101 no. 1 (January 1952): 74, 94, repro.

1954: Tietze, Hans. Treasures of the Great National Galleries. New York, 1954: 117.

1956: Mühlberger, Richard. The Bible in Art: The Old Testament. London, 1956: 209, pl. 36.

1956: Shapley, Fern Rusk. National Gallery of Art. Smithsonian Institution--Portfolio Number 5: Masterpieces from the Samuel H. Kress Collection. Washington, 1956: under no. 5.

1957: Winkler, Friedrich. Albrecht Dürer--Leben und Werk. Berlin, 1957: 73.

1959: Stange, Alfred. "Ein Gemälde aus Dürers Wanderzeit?" In Studien zur Kunst des Oberrheins. Festschrift für Werner Noack. Konstanz and Freiburg, 1959: 116.

1960: Broadley Hugh T. German Painting in the National Gallery of Art (Booklet no. 9 in Ten Schools of Painting in the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC). Washington, 1960: 22-23, color repro.

1961: Walker, John, Guy Emerson, and Charles Seymour. Art Treasures for America: An Anthology of Paintings & Sculpture in the Samuel H. Kress Collection. London, 1961: 80, 83, 210, color fig. 74.

1963: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. New York, 1963 (reprinted 1964 in French, German, and Spanish): 116, 305.

1966: Musper, Heinrich Theodor. Albrecht Dürer. Translated by Robert Eric Wolf. New York, [1966]: 24, 74, repro. 75.

1968: National Gallery of Art. European Paintings and Sculpture, Illustrations. Washington, 1968: 38, repro.

1968: Zampa, Giorgio and Angela Ottino della Chiesa, L'opera completa di Dürer. Milan, 1968: 95, no. 50b, pl. 10.

1971: Anzelewsky, Fedja. Albrecht Dürer. Das Malerische Werk. Berlin, 1971: 56-57, 90, 140-142, no. 44, pls. 40, 45, 46, color repro. 3, facing 40. (Rev. ed. 1991: 56-57, 91, 94, 142-144, no. 44, fig. 27, color pl. 42-44.)

1973: Oehler, Lisa. "Das Dürermonogramm auf Werken der Dürerschule." Städel-Jahrbuch N.F. 4 (1973): 72.

1975: European Paintings: An Illustrated Summary Catalogue (National Gallery of Art). Washington, 1975: 116-117, repro.

1975: Paltrinieri, Marisa and Franco De Poli. I Geni dell'arte: Dürer. Milan, 1975: 37, 56, 57, 59, 63, repros.

1975: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. New York, 1975: 150-151, no. 163, repro.

1976: Mende, Matthias. Albrecht Dürer: Das Frühwerk bis 1500. Herrsching, 1976: 69, fig. 31

1976: Strieder, Peter. Dürer. Milan, 1976: 42-45, 180, no. 12, repros.

1978: Southgate, M. Therese. "Albrecht Dürer: Lot and His Daughters." Journal of the American Medical Association 240, no. 12 (15 September 1978): 1217, cover repro.

1979: Sutton, Denys. "Robert Langton Douglas. Part IV." Apollo 110 (July 1979): 13 [205], 18 [210], fig. 30.

1980: Anzelewsky, Fedja. Dürer--vie et oeuvre. Translated by Monique Fuchs. Fribourg, 1980: 74, 88-89, color fig. 71.

1982: Strieder, Peter. Albrecht Dürer. Paintings. Prints. Drawings. Translated from German by Nancy M. Gordon and Walter L. Strauss. New York, 1982: 316, 318, fig. 417.

1984: Walker, John. National Gallery of Art, Washington. Rev. ed. New York, 1984: 148-149, no. 154, color repro.

1986: Mulazzani, Germano. "Raphael and Venice: Giovanni Bellini, Dürer, and Bosch." In James Beck, ed. Raphael Before Rome. Studies in the History of Art 17 (1986): 151, fig. 4.

1993: Ezendam, Yolanda. Dürer. Translated by Mauro Liloni. Milan, 1993: fig. 20.

1995: Davies, Philip R. "Abraham & Yahweh: A Case of Male Bonding." Bible Review 11, no. 4 (August 1995): 28-29, color repro.

1995: Löcher, Kurt. Review of German Paintings of the Fifteenth through Seventeenth Centuries, by John Oliver Hand with the assistance of Sally E. Mansfield. Kunstchronik 43 no. 1 (January 1995): 15.

1997: Southgate, M. Therese. The Art of JAMA: One Hundred Covers and Essays from The Journal of the American Medical Association. St. Louis, 1997: 58-59, color repro.

1999: Dunkerton, Jill. "North and South: Painting Techniques in Venice." In Renaissance Venice and the North: Crosscurrents in the Time of Bellini, Dürer and Titian. Exh. cat. Palazzo Grassi, 1999. Venice, 1999: 101.

2001: Mende, Matthias. "Dürer, Albrecht." In Allgemeines Künstler-Lexikon: Die bildenden Künstler aller Zeiten und Völker. Munich and Leipzig, 1992-[unfinished] [vols.] Munich and Leipzig, 2001: 30:301.

2004: Hand, John Oliver. National Gallery of Art: Master Paintings from the Collection. Washington and New York, 2004: v, 76-77, 142-143, no. 111, color repros.

2010: Wolf, Norbert. Dürer. Munich, 2010: 238, no. 14, repro.

2013: Delaney, John K., E. Melanie Gifford, Lisha D. Glinsman, John Oliver Hand, and Catherine Metzger. "Common Painting and Diligent Fiddling: Technical Analysis for Insight into the Divergent Styles of Dürer's 'Madonna and Child'/'Lot and his Daughters'. In The Challenge of the Object / Die Herausforderung des Objekts. 33rd Congress of the International Committee of the History of Art. Nuremberg, 2013: 1036-1040, fig. 2.

2021: Foister, Susan and Peter van den Brink, ed. Dürer’s Journeys: Travels of a Renaissance Artistt. Exh. cat. National Gallery London 2021: no. 8; 21, 292.